Engaging parents is key

 The Parenting Circle aims to improve children’s school-readiness by engaging their parents through our free training and peer mentoring scheme. We increase parents’ confidence and connections, reduce their loneliness and raise their aspirations.

Parenting Classes

The evidence shows that parenting has a bigger impact on a child’s life in the early years than education, wealth or class. Until the age of 13, parenting is the single most important influence in a child’s life. It is also the single biggest factor in explaining the difference in performance between low-income and middle-income children. Parenting style accounts for 33% of the gap in language, 21% of the gap in literacy, and 19% of the gap in mathematics.

The home learning environment is the second biggest factor in explaining income-related outcomes.

Parenting classes can help — but they last only a few weeks. Our programme builds in a parent peer mentoring scheme which extends the benefits of the programme by engaging parents in groups that meet for as long as parents wish.